Grand Australia Part I

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove © Dion Hobcroft

A highly varied tour that explores all of the very best the island continent has to offer. We will see an extensive cross section of all of the special birds Down Under, enjoying great hospitality, spectacular scenery, and very unusual wildlife.

This is our finest, most comprehensive tour of Australia—a grand Australian tour de force. We will travel the entire continent, searching out birds from the common and confiding to the rare and most elusive. We expect the trip list from this tour to represent over 80% of the species of Australia. Australia is a vast, ancient, timeless land of special beauty and infinite wonder, and yet it is one of the easiest, most comfortable, and intriguing places to explore on our planet. Fine roads, superb accommodations, and a fabulous assortment of books and guides on every aspect of Australia’s natural, cultural, and historical heritage ensure that the birder in Australia can truly enjoy a holiday.

Australia’s geographic isolation has resulted in the evolution of a remarkable array of endemic birds and other wildlife. Of the 76 indigenous Australian bird families, eight are endemic to Australia, and a further seven are shared only with nearby New Guinea. Approximately 300+ of the recorded 760 species are found nowhere else on our planet. More than 80% of Australia’s mammals are endemic and include two of the world’s three egg-laying monotremes: the short-beaked echidna and the platypus. There is an extraordinary variety of marsupials, including gliders, possums, miniature carnivores, burrow-dwelling macropods, and huge plains-dwelling red kangaroos. Australia also hosts the most diverse reptile fauna in the world, including such striking creatures as the thorny devil, frilled dragon, and 24 species of highly predatory goannas (monitor lizards).

We begin in the stunning harborside city of Sydney. Here we explore rainforests, woodlands, and heathlands, and we spend a day on the ocean where a good array of seabirds and cetaceans are expected. From Australia’s east coast we wing our way northwest across the heart of this sun-burnt land to Darwin, the capital of the vast Northern Territory. The territory is enormously rich in birds and aboriginal art, and we will see some of the best of these in Kakadu National Park: waterbirds (Magpie Geese, Black-necked Storks, and Brolgas), gigantic saltwater crocodiles, and a selection of neat mammals.

The Arnhem Land Escarpment is one of the great natural wonders of the world, highlighted by exquisite prehistoric rock paintings and several "sandstone specialties": Banded Fruit-Dove, Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon, White-lined Honeyeater, and Sandstone Shrikethrush. Further to the south we will seek out such localized rarities as the stunning Hooded Parrot, Northern Shrike-tit, and the spectacular and endangered Gouldian Finch.

We continue to Australia’s “Red Center” and the Alice (Alice Springs). Amidst starkly beautiful red sandstone gorges, hidden waterholes, mulga woodlands, and spinifex plains, we will search for some of Australia’s true “Outback” birds: gorgeous Pink Cockatoos, confiding Spinifex Pigeons, elusive mice-like Dusky Grasswrens, and a host of nifty parrots and honeyeaters. Our last two days will be spent in and around Uluru (Ayers Rock) where, in addition to viewing this huge, red monolith at sunset, we will have the opportunity to see yet more of Australia’s elusive desert dwellers.

Very good accommodations with many two- and even three-night stays; excellent food; easy terrain; good roads, comfortable vehicles; many superb wildlife photographic opportunities; time to swim, shop, and explore on your own; climate varies from hot and humid in the tropics, dry and hot in the deserts, to cool and pleasant in the southern temperate regions.

Little Kingfisher © Dion Hobcroft